Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Add ingredients to a tall glass, fill with crushed ice, and swizzle until cold. Garnish with a dash or two of Tiki Bitters (sub Angostura perhaps) on top, 2 mint sprigs, a cherry, and a straw.

Last Wednesday, Andrea and I traveled over to Lineage in Brookline for dinner. For one of my drinks, I asked bartender Ryan Lotz to make me the Exhibition Swizzle that just appeared on the menu. When I inquired about the name, Ryan explained how he was researching Aperol and discovered that it was first introduced in 1919 at the Padua Exhibition in Italy and the name Exhibition Swizzle stuck. The combination of Aperol and Falernum made for a flavorful pairing that was less intense than the Campari Swizzle he had been tinkering with before.

The Tiki Bitters provided complementary notes to the mint and the falernum's spice aromas. On the sip, Aperol's rhubarb-orange flavor paired well with the lime juice; on the swallow, the rum and the falernum's clove notes rounded out the drink with a dry finish. Looking back through my notes, the Swizzle's flavor combination reminded me a bit of Aaron Butler's Hanging Curve which was more of a traditional cocktail presentation than a Caribbean one.

who? what?

The euphemisms are getting a bit stale, suffice to say: four people in Boston -- two of whom are much more prolific writers than the other two (including the originator of this blog, who has no excuse apart from laziness) -- who drink and tell.

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The 2017 collection of 855 drink recipes, bartender tributes, and essays on hospitality from Frederic Yarm, one of the authors of the Cocktail Virgin Slut blog. Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

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